Well, the European Union sure remembers. Not too long after it admonished Microsoft for breaking its browser ballot box promises and threatened more fines, it announced a new probe into whether Microsoft was impeding competition.

The browser makers have suggested that Microsoft may be effectively banning third-party browsers from Windows 8 RT. Microsoft has denied this claim.

Surprisingly, typically pro-Apple, Inc. (AAPL) blogger John Gruber blasted the probe in a post on his blog Daring Fireball. The unlikely ally points out that Apple has a near identical model of differentiation and has received little EU scrutiny, writing:

So Apple can do it with iOS but Microsoft can’t with Windows RT, despite the fact that the iPad and iPhone are selling tens of millions of units per quarter and there is yet to ship a single Windows RT device?

With that said, even unlikely allies may be unable to save Microsoft as the EU salivates at the prospect of collect more billion-dollar fines from the beleagured operating system giant.

They're not required to disclose their code. Only their APIs. Can you sense the difference?Using undocumented APIs is akin to letting drivers take the standard route, while you take the shortcut. And you only know about the shortcut because you built the roads in the first place.

gotcha, but still, this is RT we're talking about, not Windows Vista/7/8. RT has 0 market share and theyre coming after them? Does apple and google share all api's for their mobile offerings? This just seems like a money grab to me.

It could be a money grab, but it's not without reason.In a way, it's better the investigation started when it did, as it avoids MS having to pay anything retroactively. Or, they may choose to level the playing field and walk out unscathed.